CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

5381 Sekhmet

asteroid

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ155320 ↗
Source-derived summary

5381 Sekhmet is an Aten asteroid whose orbit is sometimes closer to the Sun than the Earth's. Carolyn Shoemaker at Palomar Observatory discovered it on 14 May 1991. It is named after Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of war.

Sekhmet is believed to be an S-type asteroid, and some believe its diameter is approximately 1.4 km.

In December 2003, a team of astronomers at Arecibo Observatory announced that the asteroid may have a moon that measures 300 m in diameter and orbits approximately 1.5 km from Sekhmet. This moon is not yet confirmed.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “5381 Sekhmet” is asteroid. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Sekhmet and asteroid, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1991, 2003—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Sekhmet and asteroid is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “asteroid” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q155320. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1991 and 2003.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “5381 Sekhmet”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 5381 Sekhmet primary sources, 5381 Sekhmet archive and Sekhmet research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “5381 Sekhmet”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “5381 Sekhmet” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.